‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
Peace House Community – Dec. ’23
Learn from the Ants By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby As a kid, I used to be fascinated by anthills. I constantly wondered how animals with such tiny brains and no obvious ways of communicating on a large scale could create such a complex society. It wasn’t until I grew old enough for deep theological reflection that I realized my view of the ants was probably about the same as God’s view of us. If I looked down on the Twin Cities from ten miles up, I’d see a lot of little beings with limited intelligence and no obvious leader running into each other, but somehow managing to survive.Obviously, there are some differences between me and God, so the analogy doesn’t really work. God created us and is all-knowing, and has the power to guide the course of history, so if He (or She or Them or It, depending on your beliefs) wants us to survive, He/She/They/It can help us out. That thought comforts me, because I don’t have any faith we would survive long on our own. We’ve shown [...]
Simple Pleasures
Peace House Community - A Place to Belong By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby Lately, the negativity of the world has affected me more than usual. Over the last few months, several supporters and members at Peace House Community have died or experienced some form of trauma. World news has been bleak. The mornings are darker and colder. Sadly, I’m one of the fortunate ones, as I know many people have to deal with more problems than me. I recently asked some friends what helps them cope when they start feeling overwhelmed. As a group, we had a difficult time finding an answer. It turns out that, if there’s one thing that will increase someone’s sadness, it’s finding out that there’s no clear antidote to sadness. Eventually, I did experience something that lifted my mood. Peace House Community held an anniversary event where we went out of our way to say thank-you to our supporters. In the past, anniversary parties have been a combination of “Thank-You Party” and [...]
Peace House Community: Oct. ’23
Listening First By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby I recently attended a webinar hosted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The discussion focused on how housing advocates can speak about Housing First programs to gain support for those programs from the general public. (For this article, you don’t need to worry about what Housing First is, because that isn’t the point of this column.) As you might guess, a meeting hosted by a group called the National Alliance to End Homelessness, speaking to individuals who advocate for and provide housing to those who are homeless, became pretty self-congratulatory. Everyone assumed that housing was the correct solution, and that anyone who didn’t support it (or in this case, Housing First) was either ignorant or a villain.I sent in a question through the chat, partly because I had a serious question, and partly because I wanted to play the devil’s advocate. I asked what standards a housing program has to meet to qualify as [...]
